research advances

Synopses of important developments in the field of structural biology and structural genomics, including advances from the Protein Structure Initiative. The featured articles and technical highlights are specially written for the Structural Biology Knowledgebase, while the research highlights are taken from NPG publications.

July 2010

Selected methods highlights from PSI-2 (2005-2010)
- Introduction
  
  Ward Smith and Peter Preusch introduce a series of articles highlighting the achievements of the PSI 2005-2010.
- Cloning techniques
  
  PSI centers highlight their cloning successes.
- Expression and purification
  Generation of stable, purified protein is an essential step in the protein production pathway.
- Protein crystallization
  From automated pipelines to equipment for traditional labs, the PSI has begun to unblock the crystallization bottleneck.
- Protein crystallography
  The PSI centers have significantly increased the rate of protein structure determination by advancing and automating many of the experimental and computational steps.
- NMR spectroscopy
  Protein NMR structures can now be solved in days rather than weeks or months.